Sigmoid orchids

The sigmoid orchid, Caladenia sigmoidia is a tiny little orchid growing in what looks like very dry barren land under scattered salmon gums or amongst mallee scrub.  I spent many hours looking for these little guys out near Lake King unsuccessfully at first, until I realized just how tiny they are.

So how small are they? Well compare an average Sigmoid to my finger.

And no, that’s not a giant fake finger, here’s another one, a lovely little clump of them.

Breaking out the stunt finger again for a size comparison.

 

 

Here’s the same trio as the first picture with my car key to give you a different perspective.  These really make it difficult to wander the bush looking for them because your having to be so careful with each step you take. Often you spot one, then check around the immediate area to be sure you won’t squash any getting down for a photo, but as you turn back to where you spotted the original orchid, it’s gone, disappeared into the background…  So hard to find especially if there’s a little bit of leaf litter around.

Here’s a classic example, can you spot the Sigmoid among the leaves and bark? A big hint, it’s pretty much smack bang in the centre of the picture. Here it is just above the roll of bark.

If you thought that one was a little easy, how about the following, how many Sigmoids can you count in this picture? That’s the toe of my gumboot at the bottom of the picture.

Could you see any? You can click on the image to make it larger. I’ll give the answer at the end, if you’re too impatient you can skip straight down, otherwise, here’s a few more pictures of these beautiful little things.

 

 

 

 

You can clearly see their “clubbed” sepals and petals in this picture. Crazy things look like they’re having a wild party.

Ok, for those who made an attempt to spot all the Sigmoids in the picture above, here’s the answer and the flowers are circled.

Oh yes, there are 12 orchid flowers in the picture all circled in black. Another way to spot them is if you look for the leaves, there are actually a couple of extra leaves/plants in the image above without flowers present.